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philosophy
A Text with Readings

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philosophy
A Text with Readings
T h i RT e e n T h e d i T i o n

Manuel Velasquez
The Charles Dirksen professor
santa Clara University

Australia Brazil Mexico Singapore United Kingdom United States


● ● ● ● ●

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Philosophy: A Text with Readings, © 2017, 2014, 2011 Cengage Learning
Thirteenth Edition
WCN: 02-200-203
Manuel Velasquez
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For my sons, Brian, Kevin, and Daniel

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Contents

Preface xv

ChAPTeR The nature of Philosophy 2

1 1.1 What Is Philosophy? 4


Plato’s Allegory of the Cave 4
Plato’s Allegory and “Doing” Philosophy 6
thinking critically Assumptions and Critical Thinking 8
The Diversity of Philosophy 9
thinking critically Reasoning 10
1.2 The Traditional Divisions of Philosophy 11
Epistemology: The Study of Knowledge 11
thinking critically Avoiding Vague and Ambiguous Claims 12
Metaphysics: The Study of Reality or Existence 13
philosophy and life Philosophical Issues 15
thinking critically Supporting Claims with Reasons and Arguments 15
Ethics: The Study of Values 16
Other Philosophical Inquiries 18
1.3 A Philosopher in Action: Socrates 19
Euthyphro: Do We Know What Holiness Is? 20
thinking critically Evaluating Arguments 24
The Republic: Is Justice Whatever Benefits the Powerful? 24
The Apology: Socrates’ Trial 27
Crito: Do We Have an Obligation to Obey the Law? 31
philosophy and life Breaking the Law for the Sake of Justice 35
thinking critically Identifying Premises, Conclusions,
and Assumptions 35
1.4 The Value of Philosophy 38
Achieving Freedom 38
Building Your View of Life 39
Cultivating Awareness 39
philosophy and life Albert Ellis and Rational Emotive
Behavior Therapy 40
Learning to Think Critically 40
The Theme of This Text 41
Chapter Summary 41

vii

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viii CONTENTS

1.5 Reading 43
Voltaire, “Story of a Good Brahmin” 44
1.6 Historical Showcase: The First Philosophers 45
Pre-Socratic Western Philosophers 45
Eastern Philosophers 47

ChAPTeR human nature 50

2 2.1 Why Does Your View of Human Nature Matter? 52


thinking critically Deductive Arguments, Validity,
and Soundness 54
The Importance of Understanding Human Nature 56
philosophy and life Is Selflessness Real? 57
2.2 What Is Human Nature? 58
The Rationalistic Version of the Traditional Western
View of Human Nature 59
philosophy and life Is Human Nature Irrational? 62
The Judeo-Christian Version of the Traditional Western
View of Human Nature 66
The Darwinian Challenge 70
thinking critically Inference to the Best Explanation 76
The Existentialist Challenge 78
The Feminist Challenge 81
2.3 The Mind–Body Problem: How Do Your Mind and Your Body Relate? 86
The Dualist View of Human Nature: You Are an Immaterial
Mind with a Material Body 88
thinking critically Evaluating an Argument’s Premises 92
The Materialist View of Human Nature: You Are Your
Physical Body 94
The Mind/Brain Identity Theory of Human Nature: Your Mind
Is Your Brain 95
The Behaviorist View of Human Nature: Your Mind Is How
You Behave 97
The Functionalist View of Human Nature: Your Mind Is Like
a Computer 100
Eliminative Materialism: You Have No Mind 104
The New Dualism: Your Mind Has Nonphysical Properties 105
2.4 Is There an Enduring Self? 107
The Soul Is the Enduring Self 111
Consciousness as the Source of the Enduring Self 111
The No-Self View 113
2.5 Are We Independent and Self-Sufficient Individuals? 118
The Atomistic Self 118
The Relational Self 120

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CONTENTS ix

Power and Hegel 122


Culture and Self-Identity 123
Search for the Real Self 125
Chapter Summary 126
2.6 Readings 128
Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” 129
Janice M. Steil, “Contemporary Marriage: Still an Unequal
Partnership” 130
Jean Grimshaw, “Women’s Identity In Feminist Thinking” 131
2.7 Historical Showcase: Plato, Aristotle, and Confucius 133
Plato 133
Aristotle 140
Confucius 145

ChAPTeR Reality and Being 150

3 3.1 What Is Real? 152


philosophy and life The Experience Machine, or Does Reality
Matter? 154
Metaphysical Questions of Reality 154
The Search for Reality 155
3.2 Reality: Material or Nonmaterial? 155
Materialism: Reality as Matter 156
Objections to Materialism 160
philosophy and life The Neutrino 162
Idealism: Reality as Nonmatter 163
philosophy and life Our Knowledge of the World 168
thinking critically Conditional Arguments 173
Objections to Idealism 175
3.3 Reality in Pragmatism 178
Pragmatism’s Approach to Philosophy 179
The Pragmatic Method 180
Objections to Pragmatism 183
3.4 Reality and Logical Positivism 184
philosophy and life Parallel Universes 187
thinking critically Categorical Syllogism Arguments 188
Objections to Logical Positivism 191
3.5 Antirealism: The Heir of Pragmatism and Idealism 193
Proponents of Antirealism 194
Objections to Antirealism 197
3.6 Is Freedom Real? 200
Determinism 202
Libertarianism 207

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x CONTENTS

philosophy and life Does Our Brain Make Our Decisions Before
We Consciously Make Them? 212
Compatibilism 213
3.7 Is Time Real? 218
Time and Human Life 218
Augustine: Only the Present Moment Is Real 219
McTaggart: Subjective Time Is Not Real 221
Kant: Time Is a Mental Construct 223
Bergson: Only Subjective Time Is Real 225
Chapter Summary 226
3.8 Readings 228
Sophocles, “Oedipus the King” 229
Robert C. Solomon, “Fate and Fatalism” 238
3.9 Historical Showcase: Hobbes and Berkeley 240

ChAPTeR Philosophy, Religion, and God 250

4 4.1 The Significance of Religion 252


Defining Religion 253
Religious Belief, Religious Experience, and Theology 254
4.2 Does God Exist? 255
The Ontological Argument 256
The Cosmological Argument 260
philosophy and life Religion and Science 265
The Design Argument 266
thinking critically Arguments by Analogy 268
4.3 Atheism, Agnosticism, and the Problem of Evil 275
Atheism 275
philosophy and life God’s Omniscience and Free Will 284
Agnosticism 285
thinking critically Formal and Informal Fallacies 287
4.4 Traditional Religious Belief and Experience 290
Religious Belief 290
“The Will to Believe” 290
Personal Experience of the Divine 295
4.5 Nontraditional Religious Experience 299
Radical Theology 299
Feminist Theology 307
Eastern Religious Traditions 310
Chapter Summary 314

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CONTENTS xi

4.6 Readings 316


Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Excerpt From The Brothers Karamazov” 316
William P. Alston, “The Inductive Argument from Evil and the
Human Cognitive Condition” 318
4.7 Historical Showcase: Aquinas, Descartes, and Conway 321

ChAPTeR The Sources of Knowledge 336

5 5.1 Why Is Knowledge a Problem? 338


Acquiring Reliable Knowledge: Reason and the Senses 341
The Place of Memory 342
5.2 Is Reason the Source of Our Knowledge? 343
Descartes: Doubt and Reason 345
Innate Ideas 352
philosophy and life Innate Ideas? 356
5.3 Can the Senses Account for All Our Knowledge? 359
Locke and Empiricism 359
philosophy and life Science and the Attempt to Observe Reality 364
Berkeley and Subjectivism 366
Hume and Skepticism 370
thinking critically Inductive Generalizations 376
5.4 Kant: Does the Knowing Mind Shape the World? 383
Hume’s Challenge 383
The Basic Issue 384
Space, Time, and Mathematics 386
philosophy and life Knowledge and Gestalt Psychology 387
Causality and the Unity of the Mind 390
Constructivist Theories and Recovered Memories 396
5.5 Does Science Give Us Knowledge? 398
Inductive Reasoning and Simplicity 399
philosophy and life Society and Truth 401
The Hypothetical Method and Falsifiability 402
Paradigms and Revolutions in Science 405
thinking critically Distinguishing Science from Pseudoscience 407
Is the Theory of Recovered Memories Science or Pseudoscience? 409
Chapter Summary 409

5.6 Readings 412


Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” 412
Peter Unger, “A Defense of Skepticism” 416
Thomas Nagel, “How Do We Know Anything?” 418

5.7 Historical Showcase: Hume 419

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xii CONTENTS

ChAPTeR Truth 426

6 6.1 Knowledge and Truth 428


Knowledge as Justified True Belief 429

6.2 What Is Truth? 432


Correspondence Theory 433
philosophy and life Truth and Paradox 434
Coherence Theory 439
philosophy and life Historical Facts 445
Pragmatic Theory 447
Does Truth Matter? 451
Reconciling the Theories of Truth 453

6.3 Does Science Give Us Truth? 454


The Instrumentalist View 455
The Realist View of Science 457
The Conceptual Relativist View 458

6.4 Can Interpretations Be True? 461


Symbolic Interpretation and Intention 463
Wittgenstein and the Ideal Clear Language 465
Gadamer and Prejudice 467
Chapter Summary 470

6.5 Readings 471


Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “In a Grove” 472
Hugh Tomlinson, “After Truth: Post-Modernism and the Rhetoric
of Science” 475
John Searle, “Reality and Truth” 476

6.6 Historical Showcase: Kant 477


The Problem of Synthetic a Priori Knowledge 478
Space, Time, and Mathematics 479
Our Unified Mind Must Organize Sensations into Changing Objects 480
Causality Is in the World As We Experience It 482
Two Versions of the Categorical Imperative of Morality 483
The Moral Argument for God’s Existence 484

ChAPTeR ethics 486

7 7.1
7.2
What Is Ethics?
Is Ethics Relative?
488
490
7.3 Do Consequences Make an Action Right? 497
Ethical Egoism 499
Utilitarianism 501
Some Implications of Utilitarianism 507

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CONTENTS xiii

7.4 Do Rules Define Morality? 510


Divine Command Theory 510
philosophy and life Embryonic Stem Cell Research 513
Implications of Divine Command Ethics 517
Kant’s Categorical Imperative 519
Buddhist Ethics 528
7.5 Is Ethics Based on Character? 533
Aristotle’s Theory of Virtue 534
Love and Friendship 540
Male and Female Ethics? 543
Conclusions 547
7.6 Can Ethics Resolve Moral Quandaries? 549
Abortion 550
Euthanasia 555
thinking critically Moral Reasoning 560
Chapter Summary 562
7.7 Readings 564
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Heavenly Christmas Tree” 564
Peter Singer, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” 566
7.8 Historical Showcase: Nietzsche and Wollstonecraft 568
Nietzsche 568
Wollstonecraft 573

ChAPTeR Social and Political Philosophy 578

8 8.1 What Is Social and Political Philosophy?


8.2 What Justifies the State and Its Power? 582
580

Hobbes and the War of All against All 584


Locke and Natural Moral Laws 587
Contemporary Social Contract: Rawls 592
The Communitarian Critique 594
Social Contract and Women 599
8.3 What Is Justice? 603
philosophy and life Society and the Bomb 605
Justice as Merit 606
Justice as Equality 609
Justice as Social Utility 611
Justice Based on Need and Ability 613
Justice Based on Liberty 615
philosophy and life Welfare 616
8.4 Limits on the State 621
Unjust Laws and Civil Disobedience 622
Freedom 626

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xiv CONTENTS

Human Rights 630


War and Terrorism 634
philosophy and life The Purpose of Business 645
Chapter Summary 647
8.5 Readings 649
Erich Maria Remarque, “From All Quiet on the Western Front ” 649
Bertrand Russell, “The Ethics of War” 651
8.6 Historical Showcase: Marx and Rawls 653
Marx 653
Rawls 660

ChAPTeR Postscript: The Meaning of Life 666

9 9.1 Does Life Have Meaning? 668


What Does the Question Mean? 670
9.2 The Theistic Response to Meaning 671
9.3 Meaning and Human Progress 674
9.4 The Nihilist Rejection of Meaning 676
9.5 Meaning as a Self-Chosen Commitment 678
Chapter Summary 682

Glossary 683
Index 687

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Preface

When the early Greek philosopher Heraclitus reading a later chapter will not require reading an
declared “Everything changes!” he could have been earlier one. Moreover, the materials within each
speaking of our own era. What word could char- chapter are arranged so that the most basic or fun-
acterize our time better than the world “change”? damental topics are at the beginning of the chapter,
New fashions, fads, styles, technologies, and philoso- while later sections in the chapter address aspects of
phies now supplant each other in ever shorter peri- the topic that are less fundamental but that probe
ods of time. Many believe that the increasing pace more deeply or more broadly into the topic. This
of change has profound implications for philoso- arrangement gives the instructor the option of
phy. Whether or not this is so, rapid change forces either having students study only the basic issues in a
revisions of a more mundane kind in textbooks on chapter by assigning only the early sections or pursu-
philosophy such as this. So although Philosophy: A ing the subject matter of the chapter more in depth
Text with Readings continues to excite readers about by also assigning the later sections. Some instructors
philosophy, changes in philosophy and in the world may want to cover the basics in class, and then assign
we inhabit necessitate revising the text. I have tried students (or groups of students) the later sections
to retain what users have said they like best about as special projects. There are many different ways
this book: that it provides depth and rigor yet is of teaching the materials in the book and many dif-
easy to read, fun to use, and manages to cover all ferent courses that can be put together from these
the traditional issues with a unique combination of materials.
attention to the history of philosophy, regard for I have always found that working to revise this
interesting contemporary concerns, and substantial text is an enormously satisfying and exciting experi-
selections from classical and contemporary texts. I ence because of the new perspectives and ideas it
have worked hard to explain the difficult concepts leads me to confront. I hope that readers will be just
and texts of philosophy in a way that is technically as excited by their own explorations of the many
rigorous and accurate, yet uses language and style visions philosophy offers of what it is to be a human
that make it easy for a beginning college student being in today’s changing world.
with modest reading skills to understand. I have also
worked hard at making philosophy interesting and
relevant to contemporary undergraduates by show-
Changes in the Thirteenth edition
ing how it is directly related to their real-life con- The most important change in this edition is one
cerns and preoccupations. In addition, a series of that affects all of the chapters. I have gone through
sections on critical thinking provide the tools that the text sentence by sentence and have rewritten
will enable students to develop their thinking and every sentence whose construction was too complex
logical reasoning skills. to be easily understood. I have simplified the syntax
I should emphasize what a quick glance at the of each complex sentence, eliminated any jargon
table of contents will confirm: this text is designed or abstruse vocabulary, and shortened any long or
to cover more than most instructors would want to convoluted sentences. I believe the text now can be
cover in a single course. The coverage is intention- easily comprehended by any reader, including one
ally broad so that the instructor can select those top- with poor reading skills.
ics that he or she believes are most important and A second set of changes that affects every chapter
is not limited by the choice of topics that someone is the introduction of two new types of small “boxes”
else has made. To make it easier for an instructor to containing questions designed to help students
choose what his or her course will cover, the chap- understand the numerous excerpts from primary
ters are largely independent of one another so that sources. Each box contains two or three questions
xv

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xvi P R E FAC E

about the excerpt and is positioned next to or imme- ●● The previous edition’s short excerpt from Sar-
diately after the excerpt. Some of the boxes are enti- tre’s Being and Nothingness, in Section 2.2, has
tled Analyzing the Reading. These contain questions been replaced with several much longer excerpts
that help the student focus on the important philo- from his Existentialism and Humanism and the
sophical claims made in the excerpt, and to under- accompanying discussion has been revised.
stand and evaluate those claims and the arguments ●● New excerpts from Descartes’ Discourse on
on which they are based. A second type of boxed fea- Method, new excerpts from two of Smart’s arti-
ture is entitled Thinking Like a Philosopher. These cles on the identity theory of the mind, and
contain questions that ask the student to apply the several new excerpts from Ryle’s The Concept
ideas expressed in the excerpts to his or her own life. of Mind have been added to Section 2.2. New
Virtually every reading selection has at least one box discussions of these materials have also been
of questions associated with it. Because these boxes added.
now offer a wealth of questions that are directly ●● A new extended excerpt from one of Armstrong’s
related to the readings, I have not felt it was necessary
articles on functionalism and a new extended
to include the end-of-chapter questions that were in
excerpt from an article by Churchland on elimi-
previous editions. However, readers who would like
native materialism also have been added to
to have such questions can go to the text’s website
Section 2.2, and the accompanying discussions
where such questions are provided for each chapter.
have been revised.
As in the previous edition the text includes six-
teen modules entitled Thinking Critically that are ●● New excerpts from Hume’s Treatise have been
spread out over several chapters. Each Thinking Crit- added to Section 2.4 and the discussion has
ically module not only teaches important reasoning been revised.
skills, but also helps the reader apply these skills to ●● The end-of-chapter readings that accompanied
the philosophical topics discussed in the text. Begin- the previous edition have been removed and
ning with the introduction to critical thinking in replaced with three new readings on female
Chapter 1, the aim of these logic modules is to teach identity: Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”
students, step by step, how to critically evaluate their ; Janice M. Steil’s “Contemporary Marriage: Still
own philosophical thinking and reasoning, as well an Unequal Partnership”; and Jean Grimshaw’s
as the philosophical thoughts and arguments of oth- “Women’s Identity in Feminist Thinking.”
ers. Because critical thinking skills are so important
to doing philosophy, most of the Thinking Critically
Chapter 3
modules occur in the earlier chapters of the book ●● New excerpts from the writings of the Indian
(most, in fact, are in Chapters 1–4).
Charvaka philosophers have been added to
Five new end-of-chapter readings, some from
Section 3.2.
works of fiction, have also been added to this edi-
●● New excerpts from de La Mettrie’s Man a
tion, while numerous new or expanded excerpts
from classical and contemporary texts have been Machine have been added to Section 3.2 together
incorporated into the chapters. with new accompanying discussions.
In addition to hundreds of minor or stylistic ●● Several new excerpts from Berkeley’s Principles of

revisions, the more substantive changes in specific Human Knowledge have been added to Section 3.2
chapters are as follows: and the excerpts from the previous edition have
been expanded, while discussions of these addi-
Chapter 1 tions have also been added.
●● In Section 1.3 the excerpts from Socrates’ Apol- ●● The Critical Thinking module in Section 3.2

ogy and from the Crito have been expanded. now discusses only conditional arguments and
not disjunctive arguments.
Chapter 2 ●● The discussions of pragmatism in Section 3.3

●● In Section 2.2 the excerpts from Plato’s Republic, have been revised, and new excerpts from the
the Phaedrus, and the Phaedo, and the excerpts writings of Pierce and James have been added,
from St. Augustine’s Confessions, have been while the James excerpts from the previous edi-
expanded. tion have been expanded.

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
P R E FAC E xvii
●● In Section 3.6 the discussions of Husserl and Chapter 6
Heidegger that were in the previous edition ●● Section 6.1, the introduction to the chapter, has

have been removed, while most of the discussion been considerably shortened and simplified by
of Kierkegaard has been moved into Chapter 4 eliminating the discussion of basic and nonbasic
and much of the discussion of Sartre has been beliefs, of foundationalism, and of coherentism.
moved into the discussion of determinism and A new brief discussion of truth-bearers has been
freedom that now occupies Section 3.6. added.
●● The discussions of determinism and freedom ●● The discussion of the correspondence theory

in Section 3.6 have been revised, and several of truth in Section 6.2 has been simplified and
extended excerpts from the writings of Laplace, shortened and the discussion of Tarski’s defini-
Sartre, and Stace have been added. tion of truth has been removed.
●● The end-of-chapter readings in the previous edi- ●● The discussion of the coherence theory of truth

tion have been removed and replaced with two in Section 6.2 has been completely revised, and
new readings: Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, and several extended excerpts from Blanshard’s
Robert Solomon’s “Fate.” The Nature of Thought have been added.
●● In the discussion of the pragmatic theory of

Chapter 4 truth in Section 6.2 the excerpts from James’


●● In Section 4.3 the excerpt from Mackie’s arti-
Pragmatism have been expanded and the discus-
cle on the problem of evil has been expanded, sion has been revised.
and new excerpts from Rowe’s article on the
●● A new discussion of “pluralist” views of truth has
problem of evil and from Augustine’s discus-
sion of the nature of evil, have been added, been added to Section 6.2.
together with new or revised accompanying
discussions. Chapter 7
●● The discussion of ethical relativism in Section
●● The excerpt from James’ “The Will to Believe”
7.2 has been revised.
in Section 4.4 has been substantially expanded,
●● The discussion of utilitarianism in Section 7.3
an extended excerpt from Clifford’s “The Ethics
of Belief” has been added, and the accompany- has also been revised.
●● In Section 7.4, the discussion of the “principle
ing discussions have been revised.
●● In Section 4.5 new excerpts from Kierkegaard’s
of double effect” has been revised as well as the
writings on religion and the “leap of faith” have discussions of Kant and of Buddhist ethics.
●● The discussion of Aristotle’s theory of virtue in
been added, as well as new excerpts from Til-
lich’s writings on attempts to prove that God Section 7.5 has been revised, the excerpts from
exists, and new excerpts from the Bhagavad-Gita. his Nicomachean Ethics have been expanded, and
The discussions accompanying each of these new excerpts from the writings of Gilligan and
have been revised. Noddings have been added.
●● In Section 7.6, a new discussion of the implica-

Chapter 5 tions of the principle of double effect has been


●● New excerpts from Descartes’ Discourse on the
added, along with a new excerpt from Aquinas’
Method have been added to Section 5.2 along Summa.
with a fuller discussion of his views.
●● In Section 5.3 several new excerpts from Locke’s Chapter 8
●● The introduction, Section 8.1, has a new short
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and
from Hume’s Treatise and his Enquiry have been discussion of power and authority.
added. ●● In Section 8.2 a new excerpt from Plato’s Republic

●● In Section 5.4 the excerpts from Kant’s Critique has been added, and the excerpts from Hobbes’
of Pure Reason have been expanded and several Leviathan and Locke’s Second Treatise have been
new excerpts have been added. In addition the expanded and the accompanying discussion has
text’s discussion of his transcendental idealism been revised. The short discussion of Rousseau
has been revised. in the previous edition has been removed.

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www.ebook3000.com
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
xviii P R E FAC E

●● The excerpts from Mill’s Utilitarianism in and religious issues, I turn to metaphysical issues in
Section 8.3 have been expanded, and new Chapter 3 and then to discussions of God and reli-
excerpts from Rawls’ writings have been added, gion in Chapter 4. These issues, of course, were of
and the discussion of these has been revised. passionate concern during the medieval and early
●● The excerpts from Mill’s On Liberty in Section 8.4 modern periods of philosophy. Chapters 5 and
have been substantially expanded, along with 6 focus on questions of epistemology, interest in which
the discussion of his views. historically followed the medieval and early modern
interest in metaphysical issues. Chapters 7 and 8 are
Chapter 9 devoted respectively to ethics and social and politi-
●● In Section 9.1 the excerpt from Tolstoy’s My cal philosophy, topics that have preoccupied many
Confession has been expanded and a new excerpt philosophers during the late modern and contem-
from Ayer’s writings has been added. porary periods. Chapter 9 focuses on the meaning
●● In Section 9.2 the excerpt from Tolstoy’s My Con-
of life, an issue that is particularly important for
many of us today.
fession has been expanded, and a new excerpt
Yet no historical period has a monopoly on any of
from Baier’s writings has been added.
these topics. Consequently, each chapter moves back
●● The excerpt from Taylor’s The Meaning of Life in
and forth from classic historical discussions of issues
Section 9.4 has been expanded and the support- to contemporary discussions of the same or related
ing discussion has been revised. issues. The chapter on metaphysics, for example,
●● The excerpts from the writings of Kierkegaard moves from the early modern controversy between
and Sartre in Section 9.5 have been expanded. materialism and idealism to current discussions of
●● The aesthetics section entitled “What Is Art?” antirealism, some of which hark back to idealism.
that was formerly part of this chapter is now
available in the MindTap, and instructors who Special Features
wish to use it may have it custom-published with
the text. This text is unique in many ways and includes the
following special features:
organization Learning objectives. The first page of each chap-
Self-discovery and autonomy remain the central ter outlines the chapter contents and describes
notions around which this edition is organized the pedagogical objectives of each section of the
(although these notions are critically discussed chapter.
in Chapter 2). Each chapter repeatedly returns to
these notions and links the materials discussed to extended Selections from Primary Sources.
the reader’s growth in self-knowledge and intellec- Substantial excerpts from primary source materi-
tual autonomy. The ultimate aim of the text is to als are introduced in the main text, where they are
empower and encourage self-discovery and auton- always carefully explained. To make these materials
omy in the reader, in part by developing his or her accessible to beginning undergraduates, new and
critical thinking skills. simplified translations of several texts (by Plato,
Although the text is organized by topics, the Aristotle, Aquinas, and others) have been prepared,
chapters have been arranged in a roughly historical and several standard translations (such as Max
order. The book opens with an introductory chapter Mueller’s translation of Kant) have been simplified
on the nature of philosophy that focuses on Socrates and edited. In addition, full versions of many of the
as the exemplar of philosophy and includes substan- excerpts are linked to the eBook in the MindTap
tial selections from the Socratic dialogues. Because for Philosophy, via the Questia database. These Ques-
of the book’s focus on the self and the intrinsic tia versions of the readings are also collected in a
importance of the topic, and because human nature folder so that instructors and students can see all the
was an important concern from the earliest time of supplemental Questia readings in a single location.
philosophy, I turn immediately in Chapter 2 to the
discussion of human nature, a discussion that raises Analyzing the Reading Boxes. These boxed fea-
several issues more fully treated in later chapters. tures appear alongside each primary source excerpt
Then, because Chapter 2 raises many metaphysical and contain questions designed to help the student

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
P R E FAC E xix

understand the source text and the arguments it a philosophical question raised in the text. These
advances. questions are as diverse as “Does the existence of
evil prove God does not exist?” and “Is war morally
Thinking Like a Philosopher Boxes. These boxed justified?”
features are also associated with each excerpt and
contain questions that apply the concepts in the Literature Readings. At the end of each chapter
excerpts to the student’s personal life. is a short literature selection that raises the issues
discussed in the chapter. These readings provide a
Marginal Quick Reviews. These summaries, friendly entry into philosophy for readers who are
which appear alongside the text they summarize, unaccustomed to traditional philosophical style.
help readers identify the main contents of the chap-
ter and give them an easy way to review the materials historical Showcases. Substantial summaries of
they have read. the life and thought of major philosophers, includ-
ing female and non-Western philosophers, are
Thinking Critically Modules. A sequence of six- placed at the end of each chapter. These historical
teen modules entitled Thinking Critically, designed discussions feature large selections from the works
to develop the critical thinking and reasoning skills of philosophers who have addressed the issues
of the reader, is integrated into the text. treated in the chapter. Arranged in chronological
order, the Historical Showcases provide a clear and
Philosophy and Life Boxes. These inserts through- readable overview of the history of philosophy and
out the text show the impact of philosophy on every- enable students to see philosophy as a “great conver-
day life or its connections to current issues such as sation” across centuries.
medical dilemmas, sociobiology, psychology, and sci-
ence. Each box ends with a set of questions designed historical Timeline. Inside the front and back
to spark further thought on the subject. covers is a timeline that locates each philosopher in
his or her historical context.
Color illustrations. Color photos and art repro-
ductions are used throughout the text to provide Ancillaries
visual illustrations of the people and ideas discussed
in the text and to stimulate student interest. MindTap. Available for this edition is MindTap
for Philosophy: A Text with Readings. A fully online,
Glossary of Terms. Unfamiliar philosophical ter- personalized learning experience built upon Cengage
minology is explained and defined in the text and Learning content, MindTap combines student
highlighted in bold. These highlighted terms are learning tools—readings, videos, and activities sup-
defined again in an alphabetized glossary at the end porting critical thinking—into a singular Learning
of the book for easy reference. Path that guides students through their course.
Each chapter contains a wealth of activities written
Philosophy at the Movies. At the end of each sec- to support student learning. Critical thinking exer-
tion of the text is a short paragraph that summarizes cises help guide students through complex topics,
a film that addresses the topics treated in that sec- extended and related readings are integrated with
tion, along with questions that link the film to those the ebook via the Questia database, and video activa-
topics. tors spark connections to the real world, while video
lectures reinforce the complex topics presented in
Chapter Summary. The main text of each chapter the text.
ends with a summary of the major points that have MindTap provides students with ample oppor-
been covered, organized according to the chapter’s tunities to check their understanding, while also
main headings and learning objectives (initially laid providing a clear way to measure and assess student
out at the chapter opening), making them particu- progress for faculty and students alike. Faculty can
larly helpful as an overall review. use MindTap as a turnkey solution or customize by
adding their own content, such as YouTube videos
Readings by Philosophers. Near the end of each or documents, directly into the eBook or within
chapter are highly accessible readings examining each chapter’s Learning Path. The product can be

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
www.ebook3000.com
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
xx P R E FAC E

used fully online with the eBook for Philosophy, or in College; Jere Vincent, Great Bay Community Col-
conjunction with the printed text. lege; and Timothy Weldon, University of St. Fran-
cis. For their helpful comments and suggestions on
The Examined Life Video Series. A series of videos earlier editions of the text, I offer sincere thanks to
has been produced to accompany Philosophy: A Text Cathryn Bailey, Minnesota State University; Teresa
with Readings. Entitled The Examined Life, the 26 half- Cantrell, University of Louisville; A. Keith Carreiro,
hour videos cover most (but not all) of the topics Bristol Community College at Attleboro; Michael
treated in this edition and move in sequence through Clifford, Mississippi State University; Christina Con-
each section of each chapter. Each video consists of roy, Morehead State University; Stephen Daniel,
interviews with contemporary philosophers, drama- Texas A&M University; Janice Daurio, Moorpark
tizations, historical footage of well-known philoso- College; Scott Davison, Morehead State University;
phers, discussions of classical philosophical texts, Dennis Earl, Coastal Carolina University; Miguel
and visual interpretations of key philosophical con- Endara, Los Angeles Pierce College; Philip M. Fort-
cepts. Among the philosophers specially interviewed ier, Florida Community College at Jacksonville; Paul
for this video series are W. V. O. Quine, Hilary Put- Gass, Coppin State University; Nathaniel Goldberg,
nam, John Searle, James Rachels, Martha Nussbaum, Washington and Lee University; Khalil Habib, Salve
Marilyn Friedman, Hans Gadamer, Gary Watson, Regina University; Randy Haney, Mount San Anto-
Susan Wolf, Peter Singer, Michael Sandel, Daniel nio College; William S. Jamison, University of Alaska
Dennet, Ronald Dworkin, and many others. The Anchorage; Jonathan Katz, Kwantlen Polytechnic
course is available at www.intelecom.org. University; Stephen Kenzig, Cuyahoga Community
College; Hye-Kyung Kim, University of Wisconsin–
instructor’s Manual and Test Bank. This extensive Green Bay; Emily Kul-backi, Green River Commu-
manual contains many suggestions to help instructors nity College; Thi Lam, San Jacinto College Central;
highlight and promote further thought on philosoph- David Lane, Mt. San Antonio College and California
ical issues. It also comes with a comprehensive Test State University, Long Beach; Mary Latela, Sacred
Bank featuring multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the- Heart University, Post University; Matthew Daude
blank, and essay questions for each chapter. Laurents, Austin Community College; George J.
Lujan, Mission College; Darryl Mehring, University
of Colorado at Boulder; Scott Merlino, California
Acknowledgments
State University Sacramento; Mark Michael, Austin
For their helpful comments and suggestions on Peay State University; Jonathan Miles, Quincy Uni-
this 13th edition revision, I offer sincere thanks to versity; John C. Modschiedler, College of DuPage;
Femi Bogle-Assegai, Capital Community College; Michael Monge, Long Beach City College; Jeremy
Jessica Danos, Merrimack College; Christy Flana- Morris, Ohio University; Patrice Nango, Mesa Com-
gan-Feddon, University of Central Florida; Douglas munity College; Joseph Pak, Los Angeles City Col-
Hill, Saddleback College and Golden West College; lege; William Payne, Bellevue College; Steven Pena,
Theresa Jeffries, Gateway Community College; San Jacinto College, Central Campus; Alexandra
Sharon Kaye, John Carroll University; Richard Kelso, Perry, Bergen Community College; Michael Petri,
Pellissippi State Community College; Thi Lam, San South Coast College; James Petrik, Ohio Univer-
Jacinto College Central; Bradley Lipinski, Cuyahoga sity; Michael T. Prahl, Hawkeye Community College
Community College; Ananda Spike, MiraCosta Col- and University of Northern Iowa; Randy Ramal,
lege; Michele Svatos, Eastfield College; and Paul Mt. San Antonio College; Matthew Schuh, Miami
Tipton, Glendale Community College. The mem- Dade College; Ted Shigematsu, Santa Ana Col-
bers of the Introduction to Philosophy Technology lege; Karen Sieben, Ocean County College; Paula
Advisory Board also provided insight into their class- J. Smithka, University of Southern Mississippi;
rooms that contributed to the development of the Doran Smolkin, Kwantlen Polytechnic University;
MindTap for Philosophy: A Text with Readings. Thank Tim Snead, East Los Angeles College; Mark Sto-
you to Kent Anderson, Clarke University; Tara Bla- rey, Bellevue College; Matthew W. Turner, Francis
ser, Lake Land College; David Burris, Arizona West- Marion University; Frank Waters, Los Angeles Val-
ern College; Dan Dutkofski, Valencia College; Bryan ley College; Diane S. Wilkinson, Alabama A&M Uni-
Hilliard, Mississippi University for Women; Sharon versity; Holly L. Wilson, University of Louisiana at
Kaye, John Carroll University; Terry Sader, Butler Monroe; and Paul Wilson, Texas State University–
Community College; Julio Torres, Los Angeles City San Marcos.

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
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CHAPTER

1 The Nature of Philosophy


The feeling of wonder is the mark of the philosopher,
for all philosophy has its origins in wonder.
PLATO

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
OuTlinE And lEARning ObjECTivEs
1.1 What Is Philosophy?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES: When finished, you’ll be able to:
●● Explain how Plato’s Allegory of the Cave shows that philosophy is a freeing
activity.
●● thinking critically Explain what critical thinking is and how it is related to
philosophy.
●● Explain the importance of the philosophical perspectives of women and
non-Western cultures.
●● thinking critically Define reasoning and its role in critical thinking.

1.2 The Traditional Divisions of Philosophy


LEARNING OBJECTIVES: When finished, you’ll be able to:
●● Define epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics, and explain the kinds of questions
each asks.
●● thinking critically Recognize and avoid vague or ambiguous claims.
●● thinking critically Identify an argument, its conclusion, and its supporting
reasons.

1.3 A Philosopher in Action: Socrates


LEARNING OBJECTIVES: When finished, you’ll be able to:
●● Explain how Socrates’ unrelenting questioning of conventional beliefs
exemplifies the quest for philosophical wisdom.
●● thinking critically Identify the main premises and conclusions of an argument,
and its missing premises or assumptions.

1.4 The Value of Philosophy


LEARNING OBJECTIVES: When finished, you’ll be able to:
●● Compare Plato’s and Buddha’s claims that philosophical wisdom is related to
freedom.
●● State how philosophy can help you build your outlook on life, be more mindful,
and become a critical thinker.

Chapter Summary
1.5 Reading
Voltaire, “Story of a Good Brahman”

1.6 Historical Showcase: The First Philosophers

MindTap for Philosophy: A Text with Readings includes:


● Activator videos that spark connections to the real world
● Critical thinking exercises that help guide student understanding
● Extended versions of the readings excerpted in the text via the Questia database, linked directly
from the eBook text
© NattyPTG/Shutterstock.com

● Video lectures that reinforce complex topics


● Assignable essays and chapter quizzes

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4 CHAPTER 1 ● ThE NATuRE of PhIloSoPhy

1.1 What is Philosophy?


Philosophy begins with wonder. Although many of us know very little about the
jargon and history of philosophy, we have all been touched by the wonder with
which philosophy begins. We wonder about why we are here; about who we really
are; about whether God exists and what She or He is like; why pain, evil, sorrow, and
QuiCk REviEW separation exist; whether there is life after death; what true love and friendship are;
Philosophy begins when we what the proper balance is between serving others and serving ourselves; whether
start to wonder about and moral right and wrong are based on personal opinion or on some objective stan-
question our basic beliefs.
dard; and whether suicide, abortion, or euthanasia is ever justified.
This wondering and questioning begin early in our lives. Almost as soon as chil-
dren learn to talk, they ask: Where did I come from? Where do people go when they
die? How did the world start? Who made God? From the very beginning of our lives,
we start to seek answers to questions that make up philosophy.
In fact, the word philosophy comes from the Greek words philein, meaning “to
QuiCk REviEW
The goal of philosophy is love,” and sophia, meaning “wisdom.” Philosophy is thus the love and pursuit of wis-
to answer these questions dom. It includes the search for wisdom about many basic issues: what it means to be
for ourselves and achieve a human being; what the fundamental nature of reality is; what the sources and lim-
autonomy.
its of our knowledge are; and what is good and right in our lives and in our societies.
Although philosophy begins with wonder and questions, it does not end there.
Philosophy tries to go beyond the answers that we received when we were too young
to seek our own answers. The goal of philosophy is to answer these questions for
QuiCk REviEW ourselves and to make up our own minds about our self, life, knowledge, society,
In Plato’s Allegory of the religion, and morality.
Cave, chained prisoners We accepted many of our religious, political, and moral beliefs when we were
watch shadows cast on
a cave wall by objects children and could not yet think for ourselves. Philosophy examines these beliefs.
passing in front of a fire. The aim is not to reject them but to learn why we hold them and to ask whether
They mistake the shadows we have good reasons to continue holding them. By doing this we make our basic
for reality.
beliefs about reality and life our own. We accept them because we have thought
them through on our own, not because our parents, peers, and society have con-
ditioned us to believe them. In this
way, we gain a kind of independence
(1483–1520)/© Vatican Museums and Galleries, Vatican City, Italy, Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library International

and freedom, or what some mod-


School of Athens, from the Stanza della Segnatura, 1510–1511 (fresco), Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio of Urbino)

ern philosophers call autonomy. An


important goal of philosophy, then, is
autonomy, which is the freedom and
ability to decide for yourself what
you will believe in, by using your own
reasoning powers.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave


Walking with his Plato is one of the earliest and greatest
student Aristotle, Western philosophers. He illustrated
Plato points upward: how philosophy aims at freedom with
“And the climb a famous parable called the Allegory of
upward out of the the Cave. The Allegory of the Cave is a
cave into the upper
story Plato tells in The Republic, his clas-
world is the ascent
sic philosophical work on justice. Here
of the mind into
the domain of true is an edited translation of the Allegory
knowledge.” of the Cave, which Plato wrote in his
native Greek:

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
1.1 ● WhAT IS PhIloSoPhy? 5

Now let me describe the human situation in a parable about ignorance and learning.
To read
Imagine men live at the bottom of an underground cave. The entrance to the cave is
more from Plato's The Republic,
a long passageway that rises upward through the ground to the light outside. They click the link in the MindTap
have been there since childhood and have their legs and necks chained so they cannot Reader or go to the Questia
move. The chains hold their heads so they must sit facing the back wall of the cave. Readings folder in MindTap.
They cannot turn their heads to look up through the entrance behind them. At some
distance behind them, up nearer the entrance to the cave, a fire is burning. objects
pass in front of the fire so that they cast their shadows on the back wall of the cave.
The prisoners see the moving shadows on the cave wall as if projected on a screen.
QuiCk REviEW
All kinds of objects parade before the fire including statues of men and animals. As If a prisoner is freed and
they move past the fire their shadows dance on the wall in front of the prisoners. forced to see the fire
Those prisoners are like ourselves. The prisoners cannot see themselves or each other and objects, he will have
except for the shadows each prisoner’s body casts on the back wall of the cave. They also difficulty seeing and will
think the shadows are more
cannot see the objects behind them, except for the shadows the objects cast on the wall. real than the objects.
Now imagine the prisoners could talk with each other. Suppose their voices
echoed off the wall so that the voices seem to come from their own shadows. Then
wouldn’t they talk about these shadows as if the shadows were real? for the prisoners,
reality would consist of nothing but shadows.
Next imagine that someone freed one of the prisoners from his chains. Suppose QuiCk REviEW
he forced the prisoner to stand up and turn toward the entrance of the cave and then If the prisoner were to be
forced him to walk up toward the burning fire. The movement would be painful. The dragged out of the cave
glare from the fire would blind the prisoner so that he could hardly see the real objects to the light of the sun, he
would be blinded, and he
whose shadows he used to watch. What would he think if someone explained that would look first at shadows,
everything he had seen before was an illusion? Would he realize that now he was nearer then reflections, then
to reality and that his vision was actually clearer? objects, then the moon,
Imagine that now someone showed him the objects that had cast their shadows on and then the sun, which
controls everything in the
the wall and asked the prisoner to name each one. Wouldn’t the prisoner be at a com-
visible world.
plete loss? Wouldn’t he think the shadows he saw earlier were truer than these objects?
Next imagine someone forced the prisoner to
look straight at the burning light. his eyes would A N A LY Z I N G T H E R E A D I N G
hurt. The pain would make him turn away and try to
return to the shadows he could see more easily. he 1. At the end of his allegory Plato says the journey
would think that those shadows were more real than up to the sunlight represents the mind acquiring
the new objects shown to him. knowledge. What does the sunlight represent? What
But suppose that once more someone takes him does the darkness of the cave represent? What do
and drags him up the steep and rugged ascent from the shadows on the wall of the dark cave represent?
the cave. Suppose someone forces him out into the Who do the people who stay in the darkness of the
full light of the sun. Won’t he suffer greatly and be cave represent? Who does the person who guides
furious at being dragged upward? The light will so the prisoner out of the dark cave represent? Read
dazzle his eyes as he approaches it that he won’t be the allegory again and indicate what you think other
able to see any of this world we ourselves call real- things in the Allegory are supposed to represent.
ity. little by little he will have to get used to looking 2. What is Plato trying to say when he writes that a
at the upper world. At first he will see shadows on person who sees the real sunlit world and then
the ground best. Next perhaps he will be able to look returns to the dark cave will seem “ridiculous” to
at the reflections of men and other objects in water, those who have stayed in the dark? Do you think
and then maybe the objects themselves. After this, he Plato is right?
would find it easier to gaze at the light of the moon
and the stars in the night sky than to look at the day- 3. What is Plato trying to say when he writes that a
light sun and its light. last of all, he will be able to person who sees the real sunlit world will “feel
look at the sun and contemplate its nature. he will not happy” and will “endure anything rather than go
just look at its reflection in water but will see it as it back to thinking and living like” those who stay in
is in itself and in its own domain. he would come to the dark? Is Plato right?
the conclusion that the sun produces the seasons and 4. Is Plato assuming that knowledge is always better
the years and that it controls everything in the visible than ignorance? Is it ever true that “Ignorance is
world. he will understand that it is, in a way, the cause bliss”? So do you think Plato is right or not?
of everything he and his fellow prisoners used to see.

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eBook.

Title: Fairyland planet

Author: John Silletto

Illustrator: Richard Kluga

Release date: November 14, 2023 [eBook #72131]

Language: English

Original publication: New York, NY: Royal Publications, Inc,


1958

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed


Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAIRYLAND


PLANET ***
FAIRYLAND PLANET

By JOHN SILLETTO

Illustrated by RICHARD KLUGA

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists, if


nowhere else, on one particular planet, where there are
a Daddy and a Mommy and 137 Kids. It's a very very happy
place—until somebody asks the quite obvious question....

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from


Infinity October 1958.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
CHAPTER I

He was about thirty-eight years old, Earth-scale, with a sprinkling of


premature gray in his thick hair. His stride as he came toward the
desk had a youthful bounce, but his eyes were a little less bright than
I was accustomed to here in Fairyland. His brows were pulled slightly
inward, and he wasn't smiling.
"Hi, Mike-One," I said.
"Good morning, Daddy." Very formal, and solemn. A bad sign, I
thought.
I gave him a big reassuring grin and waved him into a chair. "This is
a pleasant surprise, Mike-One. I hardly ever have a caller during Ice
Cream Recess."
He squirmed in the chair, looking down at his feet. "I—I could come
back later, Daddy."
"No, no," I said hastily, "that's all right. A feller must have something
pretty important on his mind to bring him all the way up to Daddy's
office at Ice Cream time."
Mike-One fidgeted. He tugged at a lock of hair and began to twist it.
"Well...."
"Come on," I cajoled. "What's it all about? That's what Daddy's here
for, you know—to listen to your troubles!"
He scuffed his feet around on the floor. Then he took out a
handkerchief and blew his nose. "Well ... see, I got a buddy—well,
he ain't really my best buddy, or even second best. Sometimes we
play chess together. Or checkers, only he thinks checkers is silly."
I cleared my throat and smiled patiently, waiting for him to come to
the point. When he didn't go on I said, "What's his name?"
"Uh ... Adam."
"Adam-Two, or -Three?"
"-Two."
I nodded. "Okay, go on."
"He talks crazy, an' he's always wonderin' about things. I never seen
a kid to wonder so much. An' he's only twenty-three."
I nodded again. "And now he's got you to wonderin' about something
and you want Daddy to straighten you out. Right?"
"Uh-huh."
"Okay," I said, "shoot!"
He sniffed and scuffed his feet and scrooched around in the chair
some more. Then suddenly he opened his eyes wide and looked me
square in the face and blurted: "Is there really a Santa Claus?"
The grin I was wearing froze on my face. It seemed I'd been waiting
twenty years for one of the Kids to ask me that question. Daddy, is
there a Santa Claus? A loaded question, loaded and fused and
capable of blasting the Fairyland Experiment into space-dust.
Mike-One was waiting for an answer, I had to deal with the crisis of
the moment and worry about implications later.
I stood up and walked around the desk and put my hands on his
shoulders. "Mike," I said, "how many Christmases can you
remember?"
"Gee, Daddy, I don't know. Lots and lots."
"Let's see, now. You're thirty-eight, and Christmas comes twice a
year, so that's two times thirty-eight—seventy-six Christmases. Of
course, you can't remember all of them. But of the ones you
remember, did you ever not see Santa Claus, Mike?"
"No, Daddy. I always saw him."
"Well then, why come asking me if there is such a person when you
know there is because you see him all the time?"
Mike-One looked more uncomfortable than ever. "Well, Adam-Two
says he don't think there is a Cold Side of Number One Sun. He
thinks it's hot all the way around, an' if that's so then Santa Claus
couldn't live there. He says he thinks Santa Claus is just pretend an'
that you or somebody from the Council of Uncles dresses up that
way at Christmastime."
I scowled. How the devil had Adam-Two managed to figure that one
out?
"Listen, Mike," I said. "You trust your Daddy, don't you?"
"Golly. Course I do!"
"All right, then. There is a Santa Claus, Mike-One. He's as real as
you or me or the pink clouds or the green rain.... He's as real as
Fairyland itself. So just don't pay any more attention to Adam-Two
and his crazy notions. Okay?"
He grinned and stood up, blinking his eyes to hold back the tears.
"Th-thank you, Daddy!"
I clapped him on the back. "You're welcome, pal. Now if you hurry,
you just might get back down in time for a dish of ice cream!"

When the indicator over the elevator door told me that Mike-One had
been safely deposited at the bottom of Daddy's Tower, I walked
across the circular office to the windows facing the Compound.
Ice Cream Recess was about over and the Kids were straggling out
in all directions from the peppermint-striped Ice Cream and Candy
Factory just to the right of the Midway entrance. Except for the few
whose turn it was to learn "something new" in Mommy's school
room, they were on their own from now until Lunchtime. It was Free-
Play period.
From my hundred-foot high vantage point, I watched them go;
walking, running, skipping or hopping toward their favorite play
spots. They had their choice of the slides and swings in the
Playground, the swimming pool, tennis courts, ball diamond, gridiron,
golf course, bowling alley and skating rinks—and of course, the rides
on the Midway.
I watched them go, and my heart thumped a little faster. My gang, I
thought.... Not really mine, of course, except from the standpoint of
responsibility, but I couldn't have loved them more if I'd sired each
and every one of them. And Mommy (sometimes I almost forgot her
name was Ruth) felt the same way. It was a funny thing, this paternal
feeling—even a little weird, if I stopped to remember that a baker's
dozen of them were actually older than I. But a child is still a child,
whatever his chronological age may be, and the inhabitants of
Fairyland were children in every sense except the physical.
It was a big job, being Daddy to so many kids—but one that had set
lightly on my shoulders, so far. They were a wonderful gang, healthy
and happy. Really happy. And I couldn't think of a single place in the
Universe where you'd find another hundred and thirty-seven human
beings about whom you could make that statement.
A wonderful gang ... all sizes and shapes and personalities, ranging
in physical age from five to forty-three. Mental age ... well, that was
another story. After years of research and experimentation, we'd
settled on eight as the optimum of mental development. And so,
there wasn't a Kid in Fairyland mentally older than eight years....
Or was there?
Mike-One's confused story of his friend Adam-Two re-echoed in my
head. He says he don't think there is a Cold Side of Number One
Sun. He thinks it's hot all the way around. He says he thinks Santa
Claus is just pretend....
Something was wrong. Something big and important and dangerous,
and I didn't know what I was going to do about it. Adam-Two, unlike
some of the older Kids, had been born in Fairyland. There wasn't
one single solitary thing in his life history to account for this sudden,
terrifying curiosity and insight. Nothing. Not even pre-natal influence,
if there is such a thing.
I wondered if Ruth had noticed anything strange about him. If so,
she'd never mentioned it.
I decided I'd better have a Daddy-and-son chat with young Adam
right away.

I walked through the Midway in the warm, twin-star sunshine, waving


and shouting back at the Kids on the rides who shrieked "Hi, Daddy!"
as they caught sight of me. Nobody had seen Adam-Two, so I
escaped after a brief roller coaster ride ("Aw, come on Daddy, just
once!") with a trio of husky thirty-year-olds who called themselves
the "Three Bears."
Adam-Two wasn't at the Playground either, nor the Swimming Pool,
nor the Tennis Courts. I decided he must be in the Recreation Hall,
so I headed in that direction, taking a short cut through Pretty Park at
the north end of the Midway. The park was a big place, stretching
east and west from the Baseball Diamond to the Pony Stables at the
edge of Camping Woods, and northward as far as the Golf Course.
This was my favorite spot in Fairyland. I always came here when I
wanted to relax, or think something through without any
interruptions. It had once been an oasis on this otherwise barren
desert planet, and was therefore the logical site for the Fairyland
Compound. An underground spring in the center of the park was our
main water supply. The clear, cold fluid bubbled out of the rocks to
form a lovely lake which was perhaps fifty yards across at the widest
part. The lakeshore was ringed with tall, unearthly palm-like trees—
strange and beautiful.
I found Adam-Two there beside the lake, sitting on a rock with his
shoes and socks off, dangling his bare feet in the cold water and
gazing upward into the swaying tree-tops.
"Hi, Adam-Two!"
"Hello." He didn't seem either surprised or glad to see me.
He was above average height, well over six feet, and exceptionally
thin. Physically awkward, too, I remembered. He invariably struck out
on the Ball Diamond, invariably sliced into the rough on the Golf
Course. His hair was dark and curly and he had a nervous way of
ruffling it with his fingers, so that it was always in disarray.
But the most unusual thing about him was his eyes. They were ice-
blue, set deep back under a high, ridged forehead. They stared out
at you with a kind of ruthless, unblinking intensity that made you
uncomfortable, and I wondered why I'd never noticed those eyes
before. It was like looking at a stranger, though I'd known him since
he was little more than a baby.
I sat down alongside him on the rock. "Whatcha doin'?"
He didn't answer for awhile. His bare feet made white froth in the
water. At last he said, "Thinking."
I waited, but apparently he wasn't going to elaborate. "I hear tell
you've been doing some of your thinkin' out loud," I said quietly.
No answer.
"It's all right to think," I went on. "That's good for us. But a feller
ought to be careful about sounding off to the other Kids about
somethin' maybe he don't know anything about."
Still no answer. He kept lashing the water with his feet. His
indifference and lack of attention were beginning to annoy me, and I
was annoyed at myself for being annoyed with him and for beating
around the bush with him.
"What makes the trees grow?"
His query was so sudden and unexpected that it caught me off
guard. That made me more annoyed than ever.
"You're supposed to have learned that from Mommy in school," I said
curtly.
Another long pause. "She says the fairies touch the trees and
flowers with their magic wands. She says that's what makes them
grow."
"That's right."
"I don't believe in fairies," he said, matter-of-factly.
I scowled fiercely at him. "Oh, you don't, eh? First it's Santa Claus,
now the fairies. The next thing we know you'll stop believing in
Mommies and Daddies!"
He looked up into the tree-tops again. "I think the sun has something
to do with it," he went on, as though I hadn't said a word. "They
seem to be sort of reaching for the sun, as if the sun gave them
life...."
His eyes met mine—cold and intensely blue and very frank. "Why
don't you tell me the truth?"
I stood up, fighting to control my rising anger. "Are you calling your
Daddy a liar?" I shouted.
"I only asked a simple question."
"All right." I was regaining a little of my composure, but it was evident
that I needed more time to think this through. "Let's just forget it for
now.... Let's go over to the Rec Hall and have a game of chess, shall
we?" Adam was Chess Champ of Fairyland.
Splash-splash-splash. His feet fluttered wildly in the water again. "I
can't," he said. Splash-splash-splash.
I raised my eyebrows. "Why not?"
"I'm not through thinking."
What he needs is a spanking, I thought grimly. But spankings were
outlawed in Fairyland. They were old-fashioned, and conducive to
the generation of neuroses. I'd never considered the regulation as a
handicap—until now.
"Okay, feller," I said, with exaggerated calm, "but just let me hear one
more report—just one, mind you—about you telling the Kids there's
no Santa Claus, or no fairies, and you'll be on the No Ice Cream List
for a month!"
Splash-splash-splash. "I get tired of ice cream every day."
I stalked away, not trusting myself to speak.

That night after the Kids were bedded down in the dormitories,
Mommy and I stretched out in our lounge-chairs to watch the video-
cast from Earth. The news was dull, the kind that reminds you history
repeats itself, and so what?
The Martian colony was complaining about taxes and threatening to
secede; the campaign for Galaxy Manager was in full swing and the
network was allotting equal mud-slinging and empty-promise time to
each Party; the Solar Congress had doubled the defense budget for
next year; and an unconfirmed report had been received that an
unidentified space ship had landed on the dark side of Earth's moon.
I yawned and switched off the set.
"Why the hell does anybody want to live on Earth?" I said.
Ruth smiled at me, a sympathetic wifely smile. She'd been watching
me all evening and she knew something wasn't right. "What's the
matter, Harry?"
I sighed. "Tell me about Adam-Two."
"Oh, Him."
"Yeah. Him."
She looked a little embarrassed. "I didn't suppose you knew. Did he
tell you?"
Now I was confused. "Did he tell me what?"
She stood up suddenly. "Stop sparring with me, Harry. Did he tell you
or not?"
"Tell me what?" I almost shouted it this time.
"That he ... he asked me to play House with him."
"Ruth!"
She laughed, a little shakily. "Don't get hysterical, Daddy. I didn't do
it."
I slumped in my seat. "That's encouraging."
"What d'you suppose is the matter with him, Harry?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing," I said. "I never thought of
him as being much different from the rest. A little more shy, maybe,
and a little less exuberant on the physical side. Not enough to worry
about, though.... How's he in school?"
She frowned. "He's in the fifth year of third grade now. An above-
average student, and very inquisitive. And kind of shy, like you said. I
always thought he was well-adjusted, although I don't think he ever
plays House with the same girl twice. I just never thought of him as a
problem, until today. That—that question!"
"Yeah," I said wryly, "he seems to be full of questions." I told her
about my visit from Mike-One and the chat with Adam. "Well,
Mommy," I said, "it looks like after all these years it's finally
happening...."
"What's finally happening, Daddy?"
I sighed. "One of our Kids is growing up."

CHAPTER II

I suppose it was partly my fault that the Adam-Two business very


nearly got out of hand during the next few days. In the first place, I
was at a loss to know what to do about him, and in the second place
I was sweating day and night over the blankety-blanked Annual
Report for the Council of Uncles, who were due to arrive the
following week. I hated paper work, with the result that I usually got
caught short and had to compress a whole year's work into the
space of a few days.
The Council of Uncles, of course, wasn't really any such thing. The
title was just a nickname for the benefit of the Kids. Officially, they
were the Inter-Galactic Inspection Council of the Solar Committee for
Sociological Research. The purpose of the Committee was to find
out what people need to be happy, and the purpose of the Inspection
Council was to check around and see who was happy and who
wasn't.
Some two hundred years ago, society had reached a kind of static
condition in the realm of scientific development. For the first time in
seven thousand years of civilization, Man was faced with almost total
leisure. And to his great surprise, he found himself no nearer
happiness than when he started. And so a crusade had begun; Man
decided at last to turn his knack for research and development
inward upon himself. Scientists began to ponder and experiment with
the questions that had plagued philosophers for ages.
The coming of Automation had relieved men from the burden of
working for a living, and left them with a choice between cultural
pursuits and pure recreation. Which should it be? A good deal of
rivalry, some friendly and some otherwise, existed between the
proponents of the two major schools of thought. The intellectuals
were dubbed "Highbrows," the pleasure-boys were known as "Happy
Hooligans."
Mankind, the Highbrows contended, was still undergoing a kind of
evolution—a gradual transition from a purely physical or animal
existence to a purely mental or intellectual state. The machines had
released him from physical bondage—as they had been intended to
do—so that he might rise at last above his animal beginnings. Man
could now rise to undreamed-of cultural heights, or he could sink into
the depths of sensual degradation. The choice was up to him, but if
he chose the latter Nature might very well not permit him to survive.
Fiddle-de-dee, said the Hooligans. The trouble with Man was that he
has always insisted on pretending to be something he isn't, always
seeking some deep meaning and significance in life instead of
relaxing and enjoying it. Excessive doses of education and culture
merely serve to compound this felony, magnify his inferiority
complex, and make him thoroughly unhappy. Teach people how to
enjoy themselves instead of how to be miserable, they cried.
Fairyland was a sort of sociological laboratory for the Happy
Hooligans—a colossal, costly experiment that had been going on for
some forty-five years. It was designed to test the theory that most of
the misery in the world stems from the fact that kids are allowed to
grow up, to abandon their childhood dreams, to quit having fun. They
learn that there really isn't any Santa Claus, and they never quite
recover from the shock.
So far, the experiment appeared to be a successful one. Fairyland
Kids were happy kids, and they all believe in Santa Claus.
All but one....
On day-one of that ill-starred week, the merry-go-round on the
Midway broke down. Investigation disclosed that Adam-Two had
found my tool kit and had disassembled the remote-control drive
mechanism to "find out what makes it go."
He was placed on half-rations of Ice Cream for a period of ten days.

On day-two, Adam was discovered late at night, after Taps, in the


washroom of the boys dorm swearing in applicants for a "Question
and Answer Club." When questioned as to the purpose of this so-
called club, he refused to answer. His charter members, however,
confessed eagerly. The Club was to dream up among themselves a
Question of the Week. Questions were to be presented weekly to
Mommy and Daddy and unless satisfactory answers were
forthcoming, the club members would refuse to eat. The first
Question of the Week was: Why are there two kinds of Kids; boys
and girls?
Adam-Two was placed on No-Dessert-at-Dinner for a period of one
week.

On day-five, Adam was missing from his bed at Taps. He had not
registered to spend the night playing House in one of the cottages in
Pretty Park either, so I set out to find him.
It took me an hour and a half, but I finally located him on the far side
of the Golf Course. He was attacking the Great Wall of Fairyland.
The Great Wall, over a hundred feet high, surrounded the entire
Compound. It was encased in a pseudo-gravity field with a repellent
force of -3g and you could no more approach the Great Wall than
you could fly.
I watched in stunned amazement as Adam-Two, the Kid who
despised football, time after time took a running start, lowered his
head and charged at the wall like a varsity tackler, only to be thrown
for a five-yard loss.
When I gathered he had no intention of giving up until he dropped
from exhaustion, I walked over to where the G-field had thrown him
after his last lunge. "Adam, what are you trying to do?"
He stood up, breathing heavily, and brushed himself off. "I ... wanted
to see ... what was on the ... other side."
"There's nothing nice over there," I said. "It's a bad place. Fairyland
is a much nicer place to be."
"I wanted to see for myself." His voice was as devoid of emotion as
his face. "Why can't I get near the wall? What is it that throws me
back?"
"The fairies have cast a spell on the wall," I said. "A magic spell,
because they don't want us to go to the bad place. They want us to
stay in Fairyland where we're happy."
Abruptly, Adam started off across the Golf Course toward the
dormitory. "Okay," he said quietly. "Okay ... Daddy."
Adam-Two was placed on Limited Midway Privileges for a period of
four days.

All of which gave me an uneasy and alien feeling of helplessness.


My self-confidence, based on twenty years' experience with the Kids
of Fairyland and before that five years' experience as a Space
Scoutmaster on Earth, was visibly shaken.
Adam wasn't just being ornery, the way most any kid is likely to be at
times. If it had been just that, the loss of privileges would have
remedied the situation. Neither was he actually malicious. He
obviously wasn't out to harm anyone, he was simply curious. Curious
in a way that was distinctly unhealthy for the rest of Fairyland. He
was growing up, and I didn't know how to cope with him.
So I wrote him up in the Annual Report.

CHAPTER III

It was a big day in Fairyland whenever the Council of Uncles came.


Bigger in a way than either Christmas or Circus Time, because they
came twice a year and the Council of Uncles only once.
I'd adjusted the controls of the Weather Generators the night before
so that Arrival Day dawned warm and clear. The Kids were all
dressed in Sunday-best and the festival flags were flying from the
tops of all the buildings. Across the side of Daddy's Tower that faced
the desert and spaceport, a gay, multi-colored banner constructed by
the third-graders proclaimed: WELCOME UNCLES!
The Kids were gathered in the courtyard at the foot of the Tower,
their eyes scanning the green sky for the first glimpse of the Uncles'
spaceship. Up in the Tower at the radar console, I picked up a blip at
about three hundred kilomiles. I interrogated, and the target trace
blinked in the proper code sequence.
I turned on the kiddiecom system and announced that we had just
received a message from the Cold Side of Number One Sun. The
sound of cheering drifted up from the courtyard.
"The Uncles will be here in ten minutes," I said. "Mommy, will you
lead us in a rehearsal of the 'Welcome Song,' please?"
I stood by the window, listening to the vast sound of a hundred and
thirty-seven voices, each trying to outdo the other in amplitude and
sincerity.

"Welcome to Fairyland,
Welcome to Fairyland,
Welcome dear Uncles
To Fairyland, today!"
It was discordant, it was childish—it was even ludicrous—but I loved
it. I loved it without quite understanding it, and it made me feel happy
yet sad at the same time....
I took the elevator down to the loading platform and drove the
monorail car out to the spaceport, which was ten miles from
Fairyland—across the arid, lifeless desert. We'd built the dock close
enough for easy access yet far enough away so that the awesome
sight of a spaceship landing or blasting off wouldn't generate too
much curiosity in the Kids. It was a link with the Outside World, a
world that had no reality for them and for that reason could not stand
too close an inspection.
The Earth ship was snuggling comfortably into the dock as I climbed
out of the car. I ran across the landing platform and pressed the
control switch that lowered the gangway against the ship's hatch.
Boswell, the Council Chairman, was first down the gangway. He was
short, fat without being flabby, and completely bald except for a
fringe of white fuzz around the back of his head and over his ears.
He had an oversized nose, and bright blue eyes that twinkled
perpetually. The Kids called him Uncle Chub.
"Well well well, Harry. You look fine. Fine. Good to see you. How's it
going?"
"Fine, sir. Just fine."
His three colleagues followed close on his heels. I shook hands with
each of them. Two of them I'd known as long as I had Boswell, ever
since I'd become the Third Daddy of Fairyland.
There was old Eaker, lean and tall and solemn, with never much to
say. The Kids called him Uncle Thin. ("Good to see you, Harry. How
are you doing?") Then there was Hopkins, about my age and
therefore younger than either Boswell or Eaker. A nice, medium guy,
Hopkins—medium build, medium gray hair, medium voice, affable
without being garrulous, intelligent without being stuffy. The Kids
called him Uncle Hoppy. ("Hi, Dad. How's the gang?")
The fourth Councilman was a stranger. Boswell introduced him as
William Pettigrew. He was slightly built, fidgety, shrill-voiced and

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